


Watch it Crash

by calmena



Series: Worse Things [1]
Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Still Have Powers, Charles Xavier has a Ph.D in Adorable, Gen, Humor, M/M, No Angst, POV Female Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-18
Updated: 2015-01-18
Packaged: 2018-03-08 00:28:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3188972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calmena/pseuds/calmena
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erik works for SHIELD, but only so he'll know how to stay below their radar once he's had enough. Raven is with them as well, but only so she has leverage to keep them away from her brother.</p><p>Then Raven gets shot and Charles turns up at SHIELD HQ - which he shouldn't even know about, telepath or not. Moira isn't paid enough for this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Watch it Crash

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aesc](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aesc/gifts).



> This was actually supposed to be for Secret Mutant Madness 2014, here on AO3. December 13th was a while ago, though, so yeah. This was done almost since then. Uh... sorry? This is also only vaguely what aesc requested, but I hope they like it anyway. :)
> 
> The title is from the song Watch it Crash by Streetlight Manifesto.

Raven Darkholme was one of their most useful agents. This was, in large part, due to being able to impersonate absolutely anyone at any time, and, in an even larger part, due to being able to get pretty much any job done to the satisfaction of their bosses and bosses' bosses – which basically meant that she had elevated stealth to an art form.

SHIELD tended to like that.

In addition to that, Raven was also the sister of a telepath, which should have made her everyone's darling immediately, since they'd wanted one on their payroll _for ever_ – had the one condition she'd had to taking the job not been to keep her adopted brother's involvement in SHIELD's business nonexistent.

She'd tried to explain it to Moira before, but still, she couldn't say that she completely understood Raven's stubbornness about the subject. Xavier was a grown man after all, and, considering he was one of the more outspoken people on the subject of human-mutant equality, someone who might actually benefit from a little SHIELD presence in his life, what with the danger some of the more radical anti-mutant groups out there might pose to him.

So she'd told that to Raven, only to get laughed at in a way that made it seem like that was the funniest thing Raven had ever heard.

"Charles is..." she had said, drawing her mouth into a dissatisfied expression, shaking her head a little, as if the very thought offended her. "...idealistic. Also, he wouldn't accept SHIELD as his personal security team if you threw people at him."

So that had been that. Raven's brother went on advocating human-mutant equality and co-existence without a bodyguard of any kind, and SHIELD stayed without a telepath.

The failure to recruit a telepath into their ranks wasn't for lack of trying, either. But they tended not to show up on anyone's radar unless they were very powerful or very obvious, the former of which was actually pretty rare, while the second possibility didn't really spell out SHIELD-material.

That alone should have made Xavier an unfitting recruit anyway. Public figure that he was, it was most likely one of the worst-kept secrets what his mutation actually was and SHIELD didn't actually want it known that they sent telepaths around to read people's minds when they felt the information that might be gained from it would be worth it. (If they had a telepath, that is. As it was, they usually sent Romanoff, which was almost as good.)

Still, Moira felt the need to check Xavier out anyway, listening in on a few of his lectures and coming to the conclusion that yes, Raven was probably right. Xavier would be less than ideal for SHIELD work.

It was a pity, they could've really used a telepath on SHIELD's payroll.

 

* * *

 

"I still don't understand why I have to write these," Raven muttered, throwing what was hopefully her long-overdue mission report on Moira's desk. "I didn't start working here to spend my day doing _paperwork_."

Moira had to fight to hold in the smile threatening to fight free at the way Raven spit out the word. Nobody liked paperwork, but Raven had to be one of the more vocal ones about it.

"Tell me you have a new mission for me. I'm going crazy just sitting around. Considering you made such a big deal out of bringing me on board, the least you could do is actually give me something to _do_."

Moira nodded absently, thumbing through the report. It was half-hearted at best, but all the best agents' tended to be. She didn't think Barton had ever handed in a mission report on time and even then she'd heard Coulson complain about what an absolute farce they were, more often than not. At least Raven made an effort to seem like she gave a shit (sometimes).

"You might want to think of something to tell your brother," Moira disclosed finally, putting the mission report on a stack of other documents she needed to get around to sending further up the chain. The last mission had been something of a disaster (not to mention had turned out to be exceedingly expensive), and Fury had expressed interest in the reports. "You'll be away for a few days. As for your partner on this mission-"

Something on her face must've given away what was to come, because Raven groaned before Moira could even say the name.

"Ugh, no, don't say it."

This time, Moira couldn't quite keep her lips from twitching.

Raven worked together quite well with most agents. She tended to inspire a bit of awe in the people who hadn't met her before, and the people she had, she tended to have a relationship of mutual respect with.

Of course there would be an exception to all of that. It wasn't like they hadn't worked together before – and quite well, too, they were a good team.

It was just that they seemed to absolutely loathe each other.

"Please tell me I won't have to work with Lehnsherr _again_."

The thing was, Moira could understand the sentiment – and so could probably around the two dozen other agents who had, so far, worked with the guy. But as with Raven, the pros more than evened out the cons, so Lehnsherr stayed. Even if Moira was pretty sure he was just biding his time until he knew enough to be able to stay below SHIELD's radar without anyone's help.

He was great at what he did, though, even if he tended to go in with more violence than absolutely necessary (and usually caused a lot of property damage in the process).

So Lehnsherr was biding his time, Raven was with them to keep her brother from being recruited into SHIELD, Moira just loved her job.

 

* * *

"He isn't allowed to meet Charles, ever," Raven said, not even wincing as the paramedic pressed bandages over her arm, where a bullet had grazed her before Lehnsherr could stop it. "He'd disillusion him completely."

Moira snorted, and didn't say anything.

She didn't know where that had come from, and part of her suspected that Raven was just trying to distract herself from the sting of her injury being treated, so she was glad that Raven didn't seem to expect her to actually react to the statement with actual words.

 _She_ hadn't even really met Raven's brother beyond listening in on his lectures, but she suspected that Raven might be right in her assessment.

"He can be a little... intense," Moira allowed finally, though privately she thought it was a pretty huge understatement.

"And depressing," Raven added, pulling a jacket on, careful to avoid jostling her injured arm. "Just... stay away from Charles and don't involve him in anything SHIELD-related, then they'll probably never meet anyway."

 

* * *

 

They did meet.

 

* * *

 

Charles Xavier had, so far, never seen the inside of SHIELD's HQ. He should not, actually, know where it was located.

He was also a telepath, Moira reminded herself, so she shouldn't be surprised to see him turn up without a warning in front of her office, two days after Raven had been shot.

"Agent," he said pleasantly, eyes glinting in a way that reminded her vaguely of his adopted sister, and Moira sighed, opening her door.

"Just come in here," she said, defeated, silently apologizing to Raven.

 

* * *

 

"I would like to know what went so completely wrong during the last weekend that Raven came back with a _shot wound_. I was under the impression you cared better about your agents."

Charles Xavier, Moira decided, had to have a secondary mutation that made you feel like you'd disappointed your parents. She tried to shake it off, but still felt certain that – even if Raven would object – the next few missions would be decidedly harmless. For a moment, she considered if that might actually be the telepathy at play before Moira decided that no, it probably really was only Charles' disappointed stare.

"We can't always guarantee everything will go according to plan, you have to know that, Mr. Xavier," she reminded gently, before frowning, "Not that you should even know what Raven does for a living, as you are probably aware."

The thought that he'd have to have picked it out of Raven's thoughts crossed her mind, but Xavier shook his head before the thought had even finished forming in her head (which didn't actually help his case any, for that matter).

"You have formidable control over your mind, Ms. MacTaggert," he said gently. "But even the most controlled people sometimes slip up and let their shields fall when they don't pay attention. I have to admit, I'm flattered that the lectures you listened in on were interesting enough to divert your attention like that."

Moira cursed her undying interest in medicine and genetics and forced herself to smile genially.

"You do know that if it weren't for Raven, telling me that would be a health risk to you, don't you? As it is, the situation is... unsafe. SHIELD takes security risks very seriously."

By which she meant that Charles might not be allowed to leave. He no doubt understood the implied threat, because his smile became a little harder, fingers starting to tap out a rhythm on Moira's desk, before they stopped abruptly, as if he'd reminded himself to keep his hands still.

"Believe me, Ms. MacTaggert, that I could not be kept here against my will. Not safely."

By which he meant safely for them. He didn't have to say it out loud for Moira to understand him loud and clear.

It was nothing else than she expected, really, but it was interesting to hear it from him. If she were to believe Raven, Charles was able to read thoughts and implant vague suggestions, but vague suggestions would not be enough to get him out of this situation. No, he had to be stronger than that, which was knowledge enough that she considered it a fair trade for what (hopefully) little information he'd gleaned from her mind during his lectures.

Moira was about to say something to bring the meeting to a close, lest he pick up more things from the minds around him, when someone knocked on her door. Even the knock sounded urgent, which didn't bode well for the day getting better from here on out.

"Excuse me, please," she said pleasantly, and didn't believe for a moment that Xavier would stay behind, but she really didn't have the time to deal with this, as well as with whatever oh-so horrible crisis had sprung up in the past few minutes.

"What is it?" she asked the recruit on the other side of the door. Already she could hear Xavier following, and mentally she wished the idea of him walking out of SHIELD HQ without some sort of debriefing goodbye.

Never mind that, oh, he was a telepath, and had probably known about whatever situation she was being called in to handle before the recruit had run off to get her. There had never been any hope to get him to leave without having to throw paperwork at him, had there?

More work for her, how wonderful.

"Well," the recruit said almost sheepishly and Moira wanted to go for her tazer – mostly because shooting at agents-to-be tended to be frowned upon.

"This is not a the-world-is-ending-situation, is it?" she asked, hoping against hope, even if she already knew the answer. "Who is it this time?"

 

* * *

 

It turned out to be Lehnsherr.

 

* * *

 

For all that they seemed to hate each other, Lehnsherr and Raven would get the same idea into their heads once in a while – that their fellow SHIELD agents were horribly out of shape and needed to be taught a few things about fighting. And because so many SHIELD agents were arrogant idiots, they always found some new targets.

Every. Time.

At least with Raven the "lessons" tended to be about actual hand-to-hand, while Moira suspected Lehnsherr just liked to fling metal at other SHIELD agents once in a while.

They'd actually sent out a memo some time ago, warning agents and recruits alike that invitations to "train" from either Agent Lehnsherr or Agent Darkholme were to be met with extreme caution. How they still managed to find enough idiots to try to go up against them was a riddle she'd never solve, but it spoke against human intelligence and those situations always ended in tears, and in thousands of dollars of broken equipment and – sometimes – structural damage.

Mostly she thought Lehnsherr and Raven just liked to make trouble for SHIELD.

So, sighing, she threw open the door to one of the training rooms, preparing to shout down the idiots who let themselves get roped into training with Lehnsherr – when she stopped.

 

* * *

 

It actually turned out to be Lehnsherr. And also Raven.

 

* * *

 

The fight would be fascinating, she supposed, if it didn't also look like they were actually trying to kill each other. There was a lot of metal flying around.

"Oh," Xavier said next to her, obviously delighted and Moira wanted to ask him if he was at all alright in the head because this was dangerous and definitely not a situation to be delighted about, and his sister was involved, so what the fuck?

And then she _felt_ his delight and it was like standing in the sun and oh, right, broadcasting was a thing telepaths tended to do sometimes.

It actually felt nice, she mused, and it also solved the problem of Raven and Lehnsherr probably almost killing each other, because they stopped pretty abruptly.

"Charles? What are you doing here?" Raven asked, then glared at Moira accusingly, as if it was her fault the guy couldn't leave well enough alone.

She refused to feel guilty for this entirely, what with Xavier having turned up all on his own. Also, she hadn't even tried to recruit him.

As it was, she'd actually prefer not to have him here right now, because this was all so very classified and would probably turn into mountains of paperwork somewhere along the line and, just, no.

Xavier didn't seem to care about any of that. Right that moment, he seemed to be very busy staring at Lehnsherr and he was _still_ fucking delighted.

"That is a marvelous mutation!" he said brightly, and fuck her, was that actually a _smile_ at the corners of Lehnsherr's lips?

Raven glared.

**Author's Note:**

> I would actually like to make SHIELD!AU into a thing. A longer thing. But also I'd like to finish this semester without failing all my classes, so an actual, chaptered fic with the same premise but also a plot might take me a while.
> 
> Please feel free to point out mistakes, this was not beta-read and English is not my first language. I'll correct them as soon as possible. I'd love to hear what you think!


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